A series of mostly fortunate viewing
This pandemic lock-down of varying levels, tiers and color codes has been going on, depending on where in the world you are, for something like eight months now. Despite the illness, death, worry and economic consequences, this should be a golden age for film-viewing for healthy people stuck at home, right?
Many new movies have debuted on streaming services in addition to, or instead of, cinemas. Even whole film festivals, like the recent Cork International Film Festival, have managed to carry on by going online. Seeing brand-new movies and major releases has never been easier, as long as you have a cable connection, satellite dish and/or other way of hooking up to the internet. You don’t even have to get up off your couch.
A side-effect of this situation has been the increased blurring of the lines between film, television series, miniseries, limited series and other broadcast formats. Occasionally, after we have watched a particularly engaging TV episode, the Missus will ask me, “Are you going to review that on your website?” I then point out that my site’s format is specifically for film reviews, but it is getting more difficult to parse the differences between long video narratives in installments, on one hand, and movies, on the other.
I find it interesting that, in the current situation where film and television are necessarily on something of an equal playing field access-wise, I am spending so much time watching what used to be called “television” as opposed to movies. That seems to be where the creative energy is these days as well as the most in-depth narratives.
A few months ago I shared my love affair with the German series Dark. Here is a quick summary of some of the other things we have watched recently.
The Crown: Oddly, given her country’s history, the Missus is a sucker for anything the purports to shed a light on the private lives of British aristocracy. Once she discovered Downton Abbey, we had to consume every episode, one after the other, the way a whiskey drinker might succumb to a nearby bowl of peanuts. For a history buff, it is great fun to follow British history from the 1930s through (currently) the 1980s. In fact, the portrayals of the politics and social issues are actually of more interest to me than the Royal Family soap opera. The closer it draws to our own time, though, and we watch events that we can actually remember pretty clearly, the more it becomes obvious that Peter Morgan relies heavily on his own imagination in dramatizing the more intimate storylines. He seems to find Thatcher’s era particularly challenging. Gillian Anderson’s Iron Lady gives every indication of writers making a manful attempt at fairness but not really understanding her. We know something is definitely awry with the realization that Helena Bonham Carter’s Princess Margaret is meant to be the Royal Family’s voice of reason.
The Spanish Princess: Another series about another British royal family, this is another one that sends me to the internet after each episode to clarify what is understood historically and what is fabricated. To be fair, it comes by its fabrications honestly, since it is adapted from the novels The Constant Princess and The King’s Curse by Philippa Gregory, which mixed fictional characters with historical ones. Having previously thought of Catherine of Aragon as merely the first of Henry VIII’s six wives, it has been a revelation to discover what an amazing figure she was. Daughter of a king and a queen (each in their own right), betrothed to not one but two crown princes of England, the first woman to be a European ambassador, she had an amazingly consequential life. Sure, the series plays up the romantic aspects, and it’s funny to see the famously corpulent (in his later years) Henry played by rail-thin Ruairi O’Connor, but Charlotte Hope (previously seen as Ramsey Bolton’s sadistic girlfriend on Game of Thrones) convincingly portrays Catherine from teenager to mature woman. This tour of early Tudor England is blessed with fascinating characters, including the frequently-tormented Lady Maggie Pole, the ruthless Queen Mother Margaret Beaufort, ambitious Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, principled Thomas More and many, many others.
Succession: We only started watching this because of peer pressure. Critics love it, and it gets lots of awards. We’re only about halfway through the first season, and so far it just seems like one more soap opera about a fabulously rich family. Unlike Dallas or Dynasty, it does seem a bit more focused on the characters’ actual work lives. Strangely, my reaction is similar to that of watching The Crown: I have trouble believing these people really behave this way in private. That’s a pretty interesting reaction to have to entirely fictional characters. (They are clearly inspired by the Rupert Murdoch clan.) The premise seems to be that kids of people who build wealth are often disappointments and do not live up to the standards of their elders. As such, it increasingly seems to be playing as a comedy or parody. Anyway, I find myself laughing at it a lot. The opening credits with weird home movie footage of younger versions of the characters suggest a kind of a Wes Anderson vibe, which is encouraging.
My Brilliant Friend: We have seen every episode to date, and I am enthralled with this story of lifelong friends who grew up in post-World War II Naples. This is the kind of thing that I might otherwise dismiss as “chick lit,” but it is a great example of a compelling story about interesting characters who happen to be female. Adapted from a series of novels by the mysteriously pseudonymous Elena Ferrante, it ticks a lot of boxes for me. I love the nostalgic feel, the Mediterranean setting, the period musical soundtrack, and any scene where people are eating that delicious Italian food. Yes, there is poverty, corruption and macho men yelling at their women, but I am always a sucker for a well-told story—with beautifully drawn characters—about an enduring friendship that keeps going despite the characters’ divergent paths, the occasional betrayal and the odd romantic rivalry. I cannot get enough.
Giri/Haji: This was a strange one. A hybrid Japanese/UK production, it was meant to be a stylish Yakuza story linking Tokyo and London. You have your stoic cop, his younger brother lured into the criminal world, a gangster war threatening to explode into widespread carnage, and a star-crossed romance with a British cop with a troubled past. Oh yeah, and a wayward teenage daughter getting into trouble and being befriended by a flamboyant Japanese/British rent boy. Much of it was compelling and suspenseful. Some of it was silly and anticlimactic, and don’t get me started on when everyone broke into musical performance art in the final episode. The title translates, roughly apparently, as Duty/Shame. Takehiro Hira was fine as a haunted lawman possibly in over his head. Aoi Okuyama was winning as his rebellious daughter. Yosuke Kubozuka was all right as the black sheep brother. Charlie Creed-Miles was strangely non-threatening as the London mob boss. Justin Long, as a clueless rich American, seemed to have wandered onto the set by accident. Kelly Macdonald, as the London cop, never seemed more Scottish.
The Mandalorian: This one is a bit of distracting fluff. Okay, especially beautiful-to-look-at, lavishly produced fluff. Yeah, there is something stirring about the lone wanderer/soldier-of-fortune/gun-for-hire treading vast, desolate planetscapes, as he finds and overcomes danger at every turn. Envisioned by Jon Favreau, it is a Sergio Leone-caliber inter-galactic spaghetti weapon of the highest order. And then there’s Baby Yoda, and in a nutshell there you have the internal contradiction of everything Star Wars. Aw, he’s so adorable! Aw! Also, the appeal of, say, Clint Eastwood in the real pasta horse operas was the hard stare, the stubble on the face, the way he clenched a smoke in his determined teeth. Pedro Pascal’s hired gun is hidden constantly under a helmet. Yeah, the mask is cool and its mysteriousness spawned a whole cult fandom around Boba Fett from the original Stars Wars trilogy, but its coolness has a definite shelf live when it’s covering your series’ main character’s face, episode after episode. Anyway, it’s still good escapist fun.
Schitt’s Creek: This is another one we began viewing out of virtual peer pressure. I mean, it won all those Emmys and it does, after all, star Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara who gave us so much laughter and joy with their sketch comedy and impersonations all those years ago on Canada’s SCTV. Unfortunately, neither has really been so funny since, and the rich-people-coping-with-suddenly-being-poor premise wasn’t particularly original. Still Levy and O’Hara are always welcome faces on our screens. The more compelling characters, though, are the residents of the titular small backwater town. As the series progresses and we get to know those characters better, the more interesting it is. The quirky community living in relative isolation gives it a bit of a Northern Exposure vibe, which is all to the good. We’re still in the first season, and I’ve been assured it gets better after this.
Still in the queue for when we get time: The Undoing, the thriller/mystery series with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, and the Italian-produced high-finance drama Devils with Patrick Dempsey.
-S.L., 23 November 2020
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